Into The Second Aether
by BlueNeutrino
Summary: On Persephone, Mal accepts a job to steal an artefact from the King of Londinium. However, when Serenity takes on board three highly unusual passengers, it seems the heist may not be as straightforward as it first appeared. Inspired by a Doctor Who novel by Michael Moorcock. Full summary inside.
1. Prologue: A Charmed Ship And Her Captain

_**Into The Second Aether**_

**Full summary: Set after the events of the movie. Badger has a job for Mal: to steal the Golden Orrery that is due to be presented to the King of Londinium at the U-Day celebrations. Mal is more than happy to do anything that might disrupt those wanting to celebrate unification, but his seemingly straightforward plan is disrupted when Kaylee finds some rather unusual passengers to bring on board for extra income. _Serenity _becomes the temporary home to three Core Worlders who have found themselves stranded on the Rim: a terraforming tycoon, his wife and an eccentric hat maker. Their presence on board raises some questions as to why Badger would want to get his hands on the Orrery, and could there really be terrible consequences for the 'Verse if a certain missing hat is not recovered? And what of the mysterious phantom ship that Rim Worlders have reported seeing sailing between the outer planets? Inspired by the Doctor Who book "The Coming of the Terraphiles" by Michael Moorcock.  
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**A/N: This is largely my attempt to write a Firefly AU equivalent of the Doctor Who tie-in book "The Coming of the Terraphiles" which was written by Michael Moorcock and features the recurring character Jerry Cornelius from his other works. Like Moorcock did with Cornelius in creating an alternative version of him for the Doctor Who universe, I wanted to create alternative versions of his characters for the Firefly universe, and many of the non-Firefly-canon characters in this are adapted from Moorcock's book. For anyone who has read the book, you may recognise some of the plot elements in this story, although they have also been adapted and altered. The overall composition of the story will be approximately 50% original content, 50% adaptations.  
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**Disclaimer: Firefly is owned by Joss Whedon. All elements from _The Coming Of The Terraphiles _are owned by Michael Moorcock and the BBC. **

_**Prologue – A Charmed Ship And Her Captain**_

_Catching the solar winds, the vessel brakes and turns  
>Upon the brane and all the multiverse is hers<br>The yearning void calls out, gloriously perverse  
>She spurns a dozen planetary advances<em>  
>-The Epiconeon<p>

They were out in the black. They'd been here a long time, in space so dark that there wasn't sufficient light to fill the solar sails. The ship's auxiliary _colour _engines had run almost to empty from trying to get them across that final void, traversing dimensions and braneworlds to reach the 'Verse. But at long last they were here. This isolated little portion of space, where humankind had fled to after abandoning their planet as lost, believing it to be bled dry of all resources.

It was here that Captain Cornelius would find what he was looking for.

What that might be, nobody knew. The Captain was a mysterious man, as distanced from his own crew as he was from everyone else he encountered. The sailors on board the _Paine _ knew no better than anybody else what had driven the Captain to throw all caution to the wind, sailing across treacherous time streams and _colour_ pools and the multiverse's vast gravitational fault lines to get here, but they feared him enough not to ask.

Cornelius now stood at the helm of his ship, gazing out at the array of stars and planets before him. It was impossible to tell whether his expression was one of satisfaction, disappointment, or something else entirely, for his face was concealed entirely behind an iron mask. No one had ever seen what he looked like behind it, and the green orbs that peered through the narrow eyeholes never gave anything away. He seemed emotionless and timeless…much like the ship itself.

The _Paine _was at once both archaic and futuristic, being shaped like an old Elizabethan galleon and at the same time being far larger than one in size. She sailed through time and space with her own localised atmosphere and shields, allowing the crew to walk out on deck and look up at the open sky, with only a thin membrane of dark matter to shield them from the vacuum beyond. Her primary source of power was light itself: her sails catching the momentum of photons that streamed through the quantum vacuum and being swept along by the tides of solar winds. To absorb as much light as possible the hull had been painted black, keeping the photons' energy stored in internal converters and giving the ship maximum manoeuvrability through subluminal space.

She truly was a beauty of engineering, the Captain thought. A rare thing to find in the multiverse, and certainly unique among this colonised solar system. In open space only the buccaneer ship _Remembered Lombardy _could possibly be a match for her, but in this isolated little portion of the galaxy she was far beyond compare.

Light from the system's protostars caught the ship's sails, spurring her on just a little bit quicker as they passed through the belt of rock and debris at the edge of space. Slowly, they were moving forward into civilisation again, but there were other obstacles still to come.

It was the bosun, Peet Aviv, that called out the warning first, having spotted the ships that were fast approaching them. Cornelius turned towards her and then looked out into the distance, seeing that indeed there were several boats sailing from among the debris in their direction. They were crude vessels, he thought; clumsy chunks of metal powered by loud, inefficient engines, completely lacking the speed and graceful power of the _Paine. _Their constituent parts seemed clumsily thrown together; assembled at sharp, awkward angles with obscene proportions that gave them the appearance of Frankenstein ships. The armament of one ship alone wouldn't come close to being a match for the _Paine_'s force cannons.

But there were a great many of them, and Captain Cornelius knew enough about the history of the 'Verse to know what they were: Reavers.

Stories had abounded throughout time of the savages that inhabited the Lost Colony of Earth. Creatures that had once been men, but were driven to madness by a chemical experiment gone wrong. Tales were told of the insane beings that patrolled the edges of space, who would eat you alive and make clothing out of your flesh. Frightening enough, Cornelius thought, but these creatures weren't invincible. He'd heard stories too of how they'd once been defeated. By a seventeen year old girl, nonetheless, who'd felled a whole hoard of them.

Behind his mask, Cornelius smiled to himself. Sheer force and violence couldn't win out against well-honed precision and power, and that was exactly what the _Paine _had in abundance. As he gave out the orders for the crew to arm the ship, he tried to recall more of the story.

A boat named _Serenity, _he remembered, had sailed through Reaver space and come out unscathed. Again, Cornelius smiled. Her captain had done that by disguising the boat as a Reaver ship. Putting on a mask of sorts, much like his own. But Cornelius had no intentions of hiding and slipping away. The names of their ships seemed almost prophetic in that sense: _Serenity _had aimed to slip quietly under the radar, whereas Cornelius intended very much to inflict _Paine _on their attackers.

The Captain had never encountered Reavers before. He didn't know quite what to expect of them or how they would fight, but he _did _know full well what his own weapons were capable of. As the approaching ships came up along their broadsides he told the crew to hold steady on the guns. A harpoon was fired from one of the oncoming ships, but its path was deflected in the _Paine_'s dark matter shields and it sailed harmlessly above the deck.

It wasn't until the first of the grappling hooks flew from the Reaver ships that Cornelius finally gave the order. "Unleash hell."


	2. Eavesdown Docks

**A/N: I've decided that Londinium must have a symbolic monarchy, kind of like the Commonwealth; there's a royal family but it doesn't have any real power. That'll allow me to write this story and still have the Alliance as the ominous 'big bad' of sorts.**

**Also, sorry if the characters are a bit OOC. I find characterisation pretty difficult when dealing with characters as diverse and complex as the ones on Firefly, so if anyone would like to give me some advice I'd really appreciate it.**

**Thank you to Ninewild for reviewing. I'm glad I managed to get your attention with the prologue. In the book Cornelius got about 5000 words worth of introduction, but I just wanted to briefly introduce him so things would make sense later on in the story, and then I could get on to writing about the characters from Firefly.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Firefly or the characters from TCOTT.**

_**Chapter One – Eavesdown Docks**_

The docks were bustling, as always. It was a melting pot of noise and colour and activity; a place densely populated by traders and travellers from all across the 'Verse. Crime lords existed here alongside honest folk, privilege side by side with poverty, small time sellers beside big time businessmen. Just observing the day to day goings on at Eavesdown Docks was a window into the complex and richly layered societal structure of Persephone. Common whores and Companions alike met with clients at this first port of call; ships from both Core and Rim landed here, bringing with them an extensive variety of clientele to the local traders.

That clientele included a fair number of petty criminals, and as it happened the crew of the Firefly class ship _Serenity_ fell into that category. They had landed here earlier today to look for food, fuel, and – most importantly – a job. Their savings were running low and they desperately needed a fresh source of income by the end of the month. Fortunately for them, they had contacts on Persephone that were usually able to find them one.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds made his way through the crowded dockyard, flanked on his left by the imposing mercenary Jayne, and on his right by his loyal first mate Zoe. They were on their way to meet with a regular client, a Dyton colonist who went by the name of Badger. He was a man they neither liked nor particularly trusted, but when they were in need of money Badger had proved to be a man who was consistently able to come up with increasingly risky and difficult tasks for them. Of course, they judged the risks and difficulty to be worth it provided they got paid.

"Remind me again what it is we're s'posed to be stealin'?" Jayne was saying as they approached the network of alleyways between the metal slum buildings adjacent to the docks. They'd received a wave from Badger a couple of days previous asking to meet to discuss terms for a new job, but the crime boss had been a bit vague about what exactly he had in mind.

Mal glanced over at Jayne as they entered an alley between two metal huts, having to carefully avoid a flock of chickens that some trader had allowed to roam the floor in front of them. "Says he's located a rare orrery he reckons he could fence," Mal offered as an explanation as they sidestepped the chickens and continued on their way to the rendezvous, "Wants us to pick it up for him."

Jayne just looked at him blankly. "Like I said, what is it?"

Mal gave a slight scowl of irritation as he was forced to admit that he didn't know what an orrery was either. "Some fancy trinket or other. I expect it might be popular with Earth-That-Was collectors and the like."

Jayne still looked confused. "But how are we meant to steal it if we don't know what it is?"

On Mal's other side, Zoe rolled her eyes at the pair of them. She was almost three months pregnant now but that hadn't stopped her wanting to carry out jobs as far as possible, which was perhaps just as well. Mal and Jayne were more than competent in their own ways, but she wasn't sure how they'd manage without someone such as her who liked to be a bit more prepared. "It's a scale model of the 'Verse," she explained, "With moving planets and stars that show how they all orbit each other."

Both Mal and Jayne looked at her with expressions of mild surprise. "When did you get so knowledgeable about planet scale-models and all?" Mal asked.

"I didn't," Zoe said simply, "But River _did _explain it to us, right after we got the wave."

They both looked at her with blank expressions, clearly not remembering.

"'_Someone tried to build a copy of the 'Verse. They got it all right, except it was too small_,'" Zoe quoted, hoping to trigger their memories.

At that point they both got _oh, so that was what she meant _kind of looks on their faces. Understandable, since River was a mite cryptic at times, but given the context Zoe had been able to get some idea of what she meant. Of course, the quick check in Simon's encyclopedia later on had been what confirmed it for sure, but she didn't really feel like telling Mal or Jayne that.

A few minutes later they found themselves standing just outside Badger's base of operations, where two thuggish-looking bouncers came to escort them inside. One of them gave Zoe a curious look and narrowed his eyes at her as he noticed her pregnant belly, but she shot him a hard glare and moved her hand none-too-discreetly to the handle of her gun. He scowled back, but chose not to say anything as he turned his back to them and walked further inside the building, expecting them to follow.

Another one of Badger's clients was leaving just as they arrived; a skinny man in ragged clothes and a battered top hat who leered at them before staggering out of the door. He was wearing a chain of keys around his neck and stank of alcohol. What his business with Badger had been the three of them could only guess.

Badger looked up and gave them a rather insincere smile as they entered. "Mal, good to see you again. How long's it been? Three months? I did fear that after that business with the Alliance we wouldn't be hearing from you again at all."

Mal didn't react much, just observed Badger with a hostile expression. "Ain't even the Alliance gunna stop me from tryin'a make a living," he responded, "So why don't you just tell me what you got for us?"

Badger looked irritated by his impatience. "In good time," he said, striding round to the back of his desk and taking a seat, making a very obvious point of lounging back in his chair and making himself quite comfortable. "Three months is too long, Mal. I say we should take a bit of time to catch up."

Mal just glared at him. "Or not."

Cleary annoyed with that answer Badger shot him a scowl, but chose not to respond and instead turned his attention on Zoe with a fake smile. "Zoe, it's good to see you too. I may have neglected to say this on our wave, but congratulations!" he said, glancing down at her slightly rounded belly.

She fixed him with a hard stare. "I would say thank you, but unlike you I try not to be insincere."

The crime boss continued to grin. "Oh Zoe, you do wound me. How could you possibly think that?" he said melodramatically, effectively proving her point. He then looked at Jayne and seemed to be considering saying something, but as Jayne gave his most menacing glare Badger quickly decided he wasn't going to bother talking to the mercenary. "Alright then," he said instead, his false smile gone and his tone now businesslike, "In that case, let's get on with this. It's come to my attention that there's a certain artefact that would be worth a fine sum of money, and it's about to be put in the ideal position to be nicked." He paused for effect, but when none of them said anything he continued. "It's the Golden Orrery of the Pioneers, which is a model built shortly after the 'Verse was terraformed…"

"To show all the planets and moons and their orbits in the system," Mal finished, causing Badger to break off and look at him in surprise. Mal gave a slightly smug smile. "Yes, I know what an orrery is. Try not to look so shocked." He exchanged a sideways glance with Zoe, but if it meant getting one up on Badger then she really didn't mind letting him take the credit for knowing that.

Badger scowled at the interruption and then continued. "That's right," he said, sounding more than a little disgruntled. "And it just so happens that this particular orrery has been in the possession of collector Orion Tarbutton for a great many years. However, _this _year he plans to make a gift of it to the King of Londinium at the U-Day celebrations on the King's own planet. That, Mal, I think presents you with the perfect opportunity to snatch it, and for us both to make a fine sum of cash."

Badger had gotten up again and taken a few steps closer to Mal, who was now looking down at him. He didn't seem too keen on the idea. "You're saying you want us to steal this thing right from under the noses the King of Londinium and all his guards, right in the middle of the U-Day festival?"

Badger just smirked and nodded. "It's the first time in years that orrery'll be comin' out of the high-security vault Tarbutton keeps it in, and I dare say this'll be the only chance you'll ever have to nick a single item quite as valuable as that." He paused for a second to study Mal's reaction, and seeing that the Firefly captain still wasn't convinced he quickly continued. "_And, _it'll be a fine opportunity to cause some disruption to the Alliance's happy celebration of all the planets in the 'Verse being unified. Come on, Mal. An old Browncoat like you can't turn down such an opportunity."

Mal didn't say anything straight away, but Badger thought he saw something flash in the captain's eyes that suggested he would _very much _like the opportunity to do something like that. However, Mal then turned to glance at Jayne and Zoe briefly before shooting the question. "So what's the pay?"

Badger raised an eyebrow. "Pay?"

Mal continued to stare him down. "Quite clearly, Badger, this job's gunna carry some not-inconsiderable risk, especially given our current situation, so I ain't gunna do this for a credit less than what it's worth. So what're you offering?" It was a risky way to play it. Mal knew he should have been the one to open with a price, but truth was he didn't know what the value of the orrery or the theft of it was. He was hoping Badger would open with a not-too-unreasonable offer he could try and work his way up from.

The crime lord just smirked. "Thing is captain, I would ask you to name your price, but you quite clearly don't have a pot of glue how much this thing is worth, do you?"

Mal's silence spoke for him, but Zoe was much quicker. "Three thousand credits," she challenged.

Badger turned his attention to her, one eyebrow raised. "That's a little steep, sweetheart," he said condescendingly, "Now I'll give you a fair price but I can't have you calling the shots here. Two and half thousand, maybe."

"No," Zoe said firmly, "You've already mentioned this item is in the possession of a collector, which means it'll also be of interest to other collectors. Now if they're prepared to buy on the black market they ain't the sort to pay cheap, so I think if you plan on fencing this orrery three thousand credits won't dent your pocket too much."

Badger glared at her, and then turned back to Mal who had fixed him with a hard stare. "I still think that's a little high…" Badger began to protest, but Mal cut over him.

"You heard her. Three thousand credits," the captain said sternly.

Badger fixed him with a scowl, but before he had chance to respond Jayne spoke up. "Four thousand."

Both Mal and Zoe suddenly rounded on Jayne with _no, what are you doing? Shut up! _sort of looks, but Badger seemed amused. "Alright, Captain," he said, "Your crew have good bargaining skills. And seeing as Zoe here's expecting a little one an' all, you may have convinced me to be generous. I'll meet you half way. Three thousand five hundred."

With a slightly disbelieving look on his face, Mal turned back to Badger and stared down at him in shock. "Really? I mean…right. So, we have a deal then?" He seemed astounded that Badger had voluntarily agreed to put their fee up.

Still smirking, Badger held out his hand for Mal to shake. "Yes, we have a deal," he said as Mal accepted the offered handshake, and then added, "You have until two weeks after U-Day to get it back here to me. Then I'll see you get paid."

Mal looked at him suspiciously, and was still somewhat confused even as the bouncers escorted he, Jayne and Zoe back outside. Once they were standing back in the alley Zoe turned to him and said, "Captain, do you get the feeling we just accepted a job for far less than what it's worth?"

Mal turned to her with a somewhat thoughtful and unsettled expression. "Maybe. I don't see why he'd offer to put the pay up by that much unless he stood to make a gorram deal more from sellin' that thing. It is somethin' suspicious." That was true, but even so, three and a half thousand credits was still a hefty sum and it wasn't exactly something to be disappointed about. Maybe Badger did know something he wasn't telling them, but as long as he paid up the cash he'd promised Mal thought he could live with not knowing what was really going on.

They were beginning to head back towards the dockyard, but Jayne didn't seem to share Mal and Zoe's suspicious mood after that peculiar act of generosity from Badger. "Still, three thousand five hundred credits," he was saying, seeming quite pleased that it had been his attempt at bargaining that had gained them the extra five hundred. "That's a shiny number. Just think what I could spend it on."

"Well, I hope some of what you were thinking o' spending it on is edible," Mal commented, "We're running pretty low on protein. First thing that money needs using for is getting everybody fed. Of course, that's _once _we've actually got it."

Jayne shrugged. "True, but if we're gunna get this orairy thing then I think Vera may be needing a few supplies. I was hopin' to get stocked up on ammo while we're here."

Zoe gave him an exasperated look. "Jayne, why do you assume _every _plan we come up with to do a job might involve shooting?"

"I ain't assuming nothin'" Jayne retaliated, "Just wanna be prepared for all eventualities, is all." He was looking at Mal as he said that, and the captain smiled inwardly as he realised Jayne was asking for permission to go off and buy ammo. Of course, there was nothing Mal could do to stop Jayne, but it _was _quite nice that Jayne had thought to ask, no matter how indirectly.

"Go on, then," Mal said, "Go and get your bullets. We'll meet you back at _Serenity _later."

Jayne headed off towards more of the alleys surrounding the dockyard, and Mal and Zoe continued on for a few more steps before Zoe said something else. "Actually Captain, I was looking to go and buy some things too."

Mal turned to look at her. "What kinds of things?" he asked, just out of curiosity. It was at that point he noticed Zoe tense up just slightly and a rather uncomfortable expression came over her face, but then she quickly hid it.

"Just…general kinds of things," she replied evasively.

That was unusual behaviour from Zoe and it piqued Mal's interest, but he realised she didn't want to tell him and he wasn't going to push her to. If it had been any other member of his crew he would have reminded them to not spend money on frivolous items they couldn't afford, but when it came to Zoe he knew he didn't have to tell her that. "Alright then," he said, "So, I expect I'll be meeting you back at the boat later too?"

"Of course, Captain," she said, "As soon as I've got a couple of things sorted out," and with that she was gone.

Mal watched her leave before turning and continuing to make his way through the docks. He wondered what it could be that she was buying and didn't want him to know about, but he trusted Zoe and knew that if she didn't want to tell him there was probably a good reason for it. He was aware just how hard Zoe was finding it to come to terms with her husband's death, and if this was something to do with her way of coping then Mal was going to give her all the space she needed.

Turning a corner, he began to head along a street that was crowded with hawkers and vendors trying to sell all manner of exotic items to passers-by. Mal just ignored them, intent only on trying to get his hand on some food from somewhere. He could probably stock up on protein quite cheaply, but it would be nice to get hold of some fresh fruit or veg of some sort. After months of eating processed food he thought that was something the entire crew would appreciate.

Casting his gaze over the array of stalls surrounding him, Mal tried to make out what direction he should go to find somewhere that sold food nearby. He didn't spot anywhere immediately, but a couple of other things caught his eye: there was a small white dog running round through the street and getting under the feet of the sellers, and given the size of the thing Mal wouldn't be surprised if it ended up getting trampled to death some time soon. At the corner of the alley, two women were stood wearing skimpy outfits made of cheap faux-silk and painted up to the nines with make-up. Common prostitutes, Mal noted, trying and failing miserably to at least resemble Guild Companions. He made a point of avoiding them as he reached the end of the street.

Rounding the corner he noticed another woman trying to make her way up the alley while balancing a rather large pile of boxes on her right shoulder. It was quite obvious to Mal that she wouldn't get far. The pile went over two feet above her head and already seemed precariously close to tipping. He made a beeline to take a wide berth of her as she went past so as to avoid the inevitable tumbling down of the boxes, but as she passed him he paused a moment to look back at her.

There was something about her that just didn't seem right among the slums of Persephone. She wasn't exceptionally pretty, Mal thought, but she did seem classy in a way that just didn't fit in here. Her dark hair was pinned up in an elegant style on top of her head, with just a couple of loose curls that hung down to frame her face. Her clothing seemed expensive and high quality; cashmere and linen, from the looks of things, and not at all in line with the general cheap scruffiness of the other people patrolling the alley.

Only mildly curious as to what she might be doing here Mal was about to turn away, but just then, as the woman crossed the path of a rather imposing look shaven-headed man covered in tattoos, the boxes finally came crashing down. The man in question suddenly rounded on her and started swearing loudly in Chinese as the contents landed on his head. Mal could understand him being annoyed, but even he thought the curses were extreme.

The woman looked absolutely mortified, and kept repeating the word, "Sorry," over and over as she desperately tried to gather up the contents of the boxes, which Mal could see mostly consisted of fabric, gauze and lace. The man didn't look at all appeased by her apologies, and Mal wondered if he might be about to get violent. The thought of that made Mal hesitate a moment longer as he considered what to do.

_Don't get involved, _he tried telling himself, _ain't your place to get involved. _But looking at just how terrified the woman seemed and how angry the man was getting he found he couldn't let himself walk away. Just as the man spat a particularly filthy insult at the woman Mal took a step up to him. "Hey, now that's no way to talk to a lady," he chastised, "Now, you can see it was an accident and she's said sorry, now just let her be on her way."

The tattooed man suddenly rounded on Mal instead, and despite his first instincts to step back Mal held his ground. The man was a couple of inches taller than Mal himself and stronger built, but Mal had faced worse. "And who are you, her_ ta ma de shingren nanhai_? Someone needs to teach the bitch to look where she's going," he spat, cracking his knuckles.

Mal deliberately looked unimpressed. "Now that was uncalled for," he commented, moving his hand to sweep back the front of his brown coat and reveal the pistol holstered at his hip.

The man glanced down at it and glared, and then began to reach behind his back to pull something from his own waistband. Mal flexed his fingers on the gun, preparing to draw and shoot quickly should the man produce his own firearm, but suddenly the woman interrupted. Having collected together most of her goods she quickly approached the man and tapped his arm insistently. As he rounded on her she suddenly thrust her arm out at him, revealing the wad of paper credits clutched in her fist. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble. Now can we please just forget about this?" she pleaded.

He glanced down at the offered money and then roughly snatched it off her, making a display of counting it before shooting a glare at Mal and striding away, apparently satisfied. Mal watched him leave before turning back to the woman with a look of concern. He was about to ask if she was alright, but then noticed the way she was glaring at him. A little taken aback and confused as to why she was looking at him like that, the words died on his lips.

"Now, you didn't have to do that," the woman said quite sternly, in a very crisp and proper Londinium accent. "Not that I don't appreciate that you were trying to help me and everything, but really, you shouldn't have interfered."

Quite astounded by her reaction and more than a little lost for words, Mal floundered as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to respond to that. "I'm sorry, what?" he said indignantly, "You do realise he was about to swing a punch at you, maybe worse?"

"Of course," she replied curtly, "But you threatening to pull a gun on him certainly wasn't the best course of action."

"Really?" Mal snapped, quite incensed by her attitude, "As opposed to your excellent idea to just pay him off?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Yes. At least that way there would be no violence and nobody would get hurt. You were only inviting more trouble."

"Huh," was all Mal managed to reply at first, finding it difficult to even comprehend the logic behind her reaction. "Well, that's all very well if you've got the money to just hand out to _hun dan _like him to keep them happy, but some of us have to work hard for money, and we fight to keep what we've got. Where I come from we wouldn't put up with being treated like that."

"I expect that's so," she said, eyeing him up and down, and Mal wondered if she realised the significance of his brown coat, "But I'd advise you to consider the least violent course of action in future." With that she began to collect up her boxes again and seemed to be about to head off.

"Well, perhaps I will," Mal snapped at her, more than a little angered by her ungratefulness. She didn't react, but as she began to walk away from him Mal turned away too, still muttering under his breath. "Perhaps I'll just do nothing at all and let ungrateful, spoilt, rich, Alliance loving Core worlders like you get what's coming to them," he murmured to himself as continued down the alley.

The words left a rather bitter taste in his mouth as he thought that really, no matter what he did, there'd be no pleasing some people.

**End note: I have no idea whether 3000 credits is a reasonable amount of money or not. I've tried using the credits/platinum/dollars conversion formula on the Firefly wiki, but I still don't know how realistic it is. Can a reviewer please suggest some figures? Or we'll have to just go with it.**

**Cockney rhyming slang translations:**

"_**Haven't got a pot of glue" = "Haven't got a clue"**_

**Chinese translations**

_**ta ma de shingren nanhai = fucking lover boy**_

_**hun dan = bastards**_


End file.
